Why J.W. Anderson nearly gave up after his first show

Now the creative director of Loewe and of his own highly successful LVMH-backed label, J.W. Anderson is one of this generation’s most forward-thinking designers. While he’s widely recognised as such now, this wasn’t always the case. In fact his first collection, which made its debut in an off-schedule show at London Fashion Week in September 2008, was subject to a lot of negative press.

In a new interview with The Guardian, the designer has opened up about this press and the ramifications it had for him. “(The reviews were) so awful that the next day I was thinking, this is not working, I should give up fashion.” “A few years ago, maybe society wasn’t ready,” he continues. “Or maybe my concept was too hard core and not refined enough. Or maybe both.”

However he goes on to discuss the importance of the show as well as his radical approach to gender – something that has come to characterise his work as a designer. “When I look back, that show was probably the most important one I will ever do. It was about gender confusion, because that’s an issue that’s around us, and I believe as a designer you have to reflect what’s going on.”

“It’s fascinating to ask, how does this reflect into clothing? What does lace or silk mean, on a man or a woman?” he asks. It’s an important question; one which he has continued to ask through his designs, be they leather dresses or ruffled hot pants (for men). “It’s not gender for me, it’s just clothing,” he told us last year. “I feel that in a modern culture, if it’s about gender then it’s a very dated concept.”

Watch J.W. Anderson’s first-ever show below: